Following footsteps
Rugby in the blood as Tuqiri aims for national jumper
MANY young people grow up trying to discover their identity and what they aspire to be or achieve in life. That was not so for Emosi Tuqiri. His destiny was almost predetermined, so to speak, as he was born into a family of ruggers.
The 22-year-old is one of the three latest inclusions into the Fiji Drua for the Super Rugby Competition next year.
He is originally from the village of Namatakula in Nadroga, famous for producing some of the most renowned local and international icons in the world of rugby.
His father, Elia Tuqiri Sr, was a former rugby league and union player for the Brisbane Broncos and New South Wales Waratahs respectively.
Emosi is related to the Kuridrani
brothers (Kirisi and Tevita) who both represented the Wallabies and former Fiji Rugby Union superstar Noa Nadruku.
As the youngest among his cousins and two siblings, Emosi would go along with them when they would go and watch rugby competitions.
“I was like the baby of the group. I would tag along with all my cousins and my older brother. They would take me to see rugby matches almost every weekend,” the prop shared.
Emosi grew up in a Fijian community in Australia where just like Fiji, all the young boys would get together in the afternoon for a game of touch rugby.
This was what probably sparked something in young Emosi to follow his rugby-playing family’s footsteps and make a name for himself in the sport.
“There were just so many role models to look up to, so I had pretty much no choice but to play rugby.”
He attended Forest Lake State School for primary education and Marist College Ashgrove for secondary.
Emosi played rugby union throughout primary and secondary school as a front rower because of his built.
“I was kind of overweight when I was young and faced some challenges in terms of being selected into rep teams.”
Emosi said his school coaches would often underestimate him because he was quite slow and not up to their standards in the beginning.
“They always said that I would never be able to make it into any other team, and as a young person, I took this very personally.”
Emosi did not let the coaches views deter him from striving to become a professional rugby player like many of his relatives.
“When I graduated school I took a hard good look at myself and decided that I wanted to be the best. I wanted to prove my coaches wrong because I come from a family of rugby warriors.”
Emosi graduated high school in 2016 and was called to join the Queensland Reds Academy from 2017-2018.
“After months of training and hard work, I was called up to join the Queensland Reds training academy.”
This was where his journey in professional rugby began.
In 2018, he got a call from the Fiji Rugby Union to represent the country in the under-20 division.
The side went on to win the World Rugby Under-20 competition that was held in Romania. Fiji crushed Samoa 58-8.
From there he got a call from Queensland Premier Rugby to join the GPS Rugby Club (One of the biggest rugby clubs in Australia).
Emosi proved to be a force to be reckoned with and went on to join the Melbourne Rebels from 2020 – 2022.
And this year he was called up to join the Fijian Drua.
As a young child growing up immersed in rugby, Emosi said he always aspired to be like his older cousin and Wallabies rugby great, Lote Tuqiri.
Lote said Emosi had fought hard and had to overcome obstacles to get to where he is today.
“Yes, Emosi is kind of like a small brother to me. He is a very hardworking person but has had a couple of injuries along that way that have hindered his performance,” the former Wallabies winger shared.
“He would be able to achieve so much more as long as he has backing from his coaches and I can’t wait to someday see him don the white jumper.”
Emosi’s father, Elia Tuqiri, said Emosi had been obsessed with rugby ever since he was a young boy.
“He used to know the names of almost every rugby player in various clubs and international sides,” he shared.
He also said Emosi would collect and keep stats of the players during his spare time.
“His mother and I noticed his love for rugby since then and would always support him throughout his rugby journey.”
Emosi said his parents would always show up for his rugby matches and that was a huge boost for him personally.
“Whether it was raining, snowing or whatever weather, they would make the effort to come watch me.”
For the young lad, one of the best experiences he has had during his rugby journey so far was representing Fiji at the Junior World Cup in Romania in 2018.
“Representing your country just gives a person a different type of feeling of pride and happiness,”
He now looks forward to the new season with the Fijian Drua and someday hopes to wear the Flying Fijian jumper.
FIJI Rugby Union has set up an initiative to help Ben Gollings prepare his side well ahead of the Las Vegas, USA and Vancouver, Canada 7s tournaments.
After a dismal performance at the last HSBC World Rugby Series leg — Hamilton, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia — Rugby House has taken a serious approach to rescue the national men’s 7s team which is yet to win a title this season.
The Fiji Airways-sponsored team sits on fifth spot after five tournaments.
With six tournaments left, Fiji’s standing will determine whether they automatically qualify for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. The top four team qualify automatically.
Twelve teams will qualify for the men’s competition — 11 spots are up for grabs as France has automatically qualified as host.
FRU has decided to prepare a pool of players that the Fiji 7s coaching panel can choose from and add more healthy competition to the squad.
Last weekend, players in the Fiji Development team proved themselves and have raised their hands for selection in the Fiji men’s team.
The side was crowned champion of the 36th Fiji Bitter Nawaka 7s after they beat a strong Kombat Uluinakau side 31-10.
FRU interim chief executive officer Tevita Tuiloa, in an interview last week said with the development team in place, that was an avenue to look at some younger players coming through.
“The idea is to add more agility, dynamic and robust players coming through the system and its not to say that the old players have been done and dusted. It just adds more healthy competition to the squad to show who is the best team that can go to LA and Vancouver and get the job done.
“More importantly for Fiji, Hong Kong is in March and Singapore.
“We would like to think that in the next few weeks, the team will be working very hard.
“Now there is no easy team in the series. South Africa did a good job in the semi-final then they got carried away by New Zealand in the final.
“Everyone is up for the 14 minutes of the game, anything can happen. It is a matter of not only physical fitness but mental toughness as well.”
Meanwhile, Tuiloa said there was a review of all the teams going on at FRU.
“The national performance review is ongoing that will be done again by the (FRU) board in due course.”
He said it was a disappointing result in the Sydney and Hamilton 7s as they were expecting big things, but they didn’t do quite as well as they hoped for.
“There was a lot of pressure on the boys and Ben.
As for the development team, it was a mixture of experience players such as Inia Tawalo from Army, some of the Fire players that played well in the Coral Coast 7s, a few boys from Tabadamu, Uluinakau that have been putting their hands up.
“It’s a good opportunity to see their capabilities mixing up with some experienced players who have been participating in the series.
“The idea is to fit in the structure that Ben and the management have as they move forward to Vancouver and LA.”
He said the focus was to prepare a development team during the 47th Fiji Bitter Marist Sevens tournament from March 16-18 at the HFC bank Stadium in Suva.